BAGHDAD, Dec 30: At least five people were killed and 12 wounded when two blasts rocked central Baghdad on Friday, officials said, the latest in a surge of attacks after largely peaceful elections earlier this month.

Initially, interior ministry officials pinned the attacks on two car bombs, but a police source later said mortar rounds that landed on cars were to blame.

The blasts occurred near a transportation centre taking commuters to largely Shia areas in northern Baghdad, officials said.

Violence in Iraq has escalated over the past week after a lull in attacks around the Dec 15 parliamentary election.

In a related development, Iraq’s Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Chalabi has assumed direct control of the powerful oil ministry as crude exports grind to a halt due to sabotage attacks and logistics problems.

Chalabi, who has been improving his relations with Washington after falling out with the US administration, was appointed acting oil minister after the incumbent Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum was given leave, the officials said.—Reuters